Consider my idea that the Americas were populated by the descendants of dolphins, who due to evolutionary convergence, were able to interbreed with the humans when they finally did arrive from across the land bridge. Consider that.
It may not be as old as the ideas put forth in holy scriptures, but just wait - it will be.
Perhaps more importantly, smart users should love you. IT departments suffer because they don't forge relationships outside their department. While everyone else has friends and advocates at budget time, IT workers are viewed as interchangeable, even redundant. If you snub or ignore technically smart users, you're alienating the one outside segment that's even capable of understanding why you're needed.
This always makes me wonder about the courtroom. How do they prove that pictures and video are genuine?
My community encountered this situation a few years back, when the local weatherman used video evidence to prove that he was floating high above the east coast only minutes before his wife was murdered.
There are already thousands of good and affordable actors out there. I think what the studios are willing to pay so much for is not acting skill, but cultural recognizability. The next step is for someone to create, popularize, and license not just CGI actors, but CGI celebrities - an idea already explored by William Gibson.
Remember how cheesy the CGI Jabba the Hutt looked compared to the original puppet? Remember how convincingly real the original Star Wars spaceship models looked compared to more modern computer animations? Remember how the makers of Forrest Gump tried and failed to Photoshop words into the mouths of George Wallace and JFK, finally opting instead to exhume their bodies and stuff them with animatronics?
I would also expect that the US as a democratically controlled country would also take into account more factors than simply their financial bottom line
Why does everyone think the U.S. is democratic? We're a multiple-choice oligarchy.
There are advantages to living here. The cost of living is very low. I like my job. Should I lose it, I know a number of people in the local industry. And if I'm moving to find a different culture, that's going to have to be a long move.
On the other hand, I might discover I have people skills if I move somewhere with different people.
Alabama is proof. We have one of the top research hospitals in the United States. We have a whole city full of freaking rocket scientists which incidentally has the nation's highest concentration of engineers. Jimmy Wales grew up here. We had three winners on American Idol (who no one cared about until then) and lots of good local bands (who no one cares about now.) Every generation, Alabama produces enough interesting people to completely replace the asshats who are responsible for Alabama's history - but then they all move, leaving the same old rednecks in charge.
Reputation is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's the sole reason why Alabama is still socially conservative.
Seriously, dude. Arguments about global warming and scratchy hemp shirts aren't nearly as good as the argument that it's just none of anyone's damn business what you smoke.
I'm worried that we're going to keep building on top of the macrokernels we already have, without cleaning up and simplifying things as we go. I'm worried that the future will be as presented in Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky, where everyone runs an operating system too large, un-modular, and spaghetti-like for anyone to understand, much less debug. Hurry with The Hurd, RMS!
I'm in web design mode, and read this as Adobe/Macromedia Flash, not flash memory. Imagine my relief upon realizing that wasn't what "All-Flash iPod Lineup" meant!
But GPL works for software because developing GPL'ed software is no more expensive than a consumer-level computer and a lot of personal time. You can get involved without expecting to recoup an investment. Developing drugs, however, currently takes lots of money and real-world equipment. Anyone smart and driven can develop top-class software, but there's a costly barrier to entry for drug developers and gene sequencers. Until that changes, better to leave some incentive for companies with deep pockets to get involved.
When people are dying, middle ground must be found, but it must leave that incentive intact. If you nationalize big pharma's treatment for AIDS, (or put all the information under a viral license that would prevent them from profiting from that treatment,) it might decide not to do R&D that might have led to a cure.
but it would only be beneficial to put a viral license (as it were) on this information if hobbyists and volunteers had the same drug synthesizing and gene sequencing abilities as major pharma/bio companies. However, after a few more generations of Moore's Law, maybe hobbyists and volunteers could do drug synthesis and gene sequencing completely in a virtual environment? Then, a GPL license would make sense.
Caveat: I hate to sound like a G. W. Republican, but such software would also make it easy to design bioweapons. Something to think about.
I suspect that most of those countries have agreements with nations that do have militaries, but that's an interesting rebuttal. Especially in the case of Vatican City, which may only be protected from foreign invasion by the threat of international Catholic outrage.
In terms of active troops per 1,000 citizens, Luxembourg has a higher percentage of active military than China, India, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, or Canada. Any invading country would face a similar ratio of benefit vs. expenditure. I stand by my claim. You can't have a sovereign country without an appropriately sized army to back it up.
Nations are sovereign only because they have enough firepower to keep other nations from claiming them. What does it matter what the laws of Sealand are, if you own it and you have no army? Is the army included, or do you have to put it together yourself?
The phone book has my full name, address, and phone number. The kind of information MySpace asks for can be obtained by meeting me briefly in person and acting friendly. Is putting this information online really qualitatively different from the regular act of walking around and meeting people?
Socializing at a bar puts you at greater risk of physical harm. Socializing at a church puts you at greater risk of personal judgment. Socializing at a coffee shop puts you at greater risk of cardiac arrhythmia. Socializing at a restaurant puts you at greater risk of clogged arteries. Not socializing puts you at greater risk of dying alone.
Slashdot Mirror
In Socialist China, boot camp programs you!
Consider my idea that the Americas were populated by the descendants of dolphins, who due to evolutionary convergence, were able to interbreed with the humans when they finally did arrive from across the land bridge. Consider that.
It may not be as old as the ideas put forth in holy scriptures, but just wait - it will be.
Perhaps more importantly, smart users should love you. IT departments suffer because they don't forge relationships outside their department. While everyone else has friends and advocates at budget time, IT workers are viewed as interchangeable, even redundant. If you snub or ignore technically smart users, you're alienating the one outside segment that's even capable of understanding why you're needed.
This always makes me wonder about the courtroom. How do they prove that pictures and video are genuine?
My community encountered this situation a few years back, when the local weatherman used video evidence to prove that he was floating high above the east coast only minutes before his wife was murdered.
There are already thousands of good and affordable actors out there. I think what the studios are willing to pay so much for is not acting skill, but cultural recognizability. The next step is for someone to create, popularize, and license not just CGI actors, but CGI celebrities - an idea already explored by William Gibson.
Remember how cheesy the CGI Jabba the Hutt looked compared to the original puppet? Remember how convincingly real the original Star Wars spaceship models looked compared to more modern computer animations? Remember how the makers of Forrest Gump tried and failed to Photoshop words into the mouths of George Wallace and JFK, finally opting instead to exhume their bodies and stuff them with animatronics?
I would also expect that the US as a democratically controlled country would also take into account more factors than simply their financial bottom line
Why does everyone think the U.S. is democratic? We're a multiple-choice oligarchy.
It doesn't take skill to get along with people who think just like you.
I can get along with people who disagree with me. The problem comes in when all the people who disagree with me agree with each other.
I may.
There are advantages to living here. The cost of living is very low. I like my job. Should I lose it, I know a number of people in the local industry. And if I'm moving to find a different culture, that's going to have to be a long move.
On the other hand, I might discover I have people skills if I move somewhere with different people.
Alabama is proof. We have one of the top research hospitals in the United States. We have a whole city full of freaking rocket scientists which incidentally has the nation's highest concentration of engineers. Jimmy Wales grew up here. We had three winners on American Idol (who no one cared about until then) and lots of good local bands (who no one cares about now.) Every generation, Alabama produces enough interesting people to completely replace the asshats who are responsible for Alabama's history - but then they all move, leaving the same old rednecks in charge.
Reputation is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's the sole reason why Alabama is still socially conservative.
Interesting how the CO2 levels started to rise just after the government banned growing it!
I thought it was due to a decrease in the number of pirates.
Seriously, dude. Arguments about global warming and scratchy hemp shirts aren't nearly as good as the argument that it's just none of anyone's damn business what you smoke.
Operating systems are headed right at the top, with #include .
I'm worried that we're going to keep building on top of the macrokernels we already have, without cleaning up and simplifying things as we go. I'm worried that the future will be as presented in Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky, where everyone runs an operating system too large, un-modular, and spaghetti-like for anyone to understand, much less debug. Hurry with The Hurd, RMS!
I'm in web design mode, and read this as Adobe/Macromedia Flash, not flash memory. Imagine my relief upon realizing that wasn't what "All-Flash iPod Lineup" meant!
But GPL works for software because developing GPL'ed software is no more expensive than a consumer-level computer and a lot of personal time. You can get involved without expecting to recoup an investment. Developing drugs, however, currently takes lots of money and real-world equipment. Anyone smart and driven can develop top-class software, but there's a costly barrier to entry for drug developers and gene sequencers. Until that changes, better to leave some incentive for companies with deep pockets to get involved.
When people are dying, middle ground must be found, but it must leave that incentive intact. If you nationalize big pharma's treatment for AIDS, (or put all the information under a viral license that would prevent them from profiting from that treatment,) it might decide not to do R&D that might have led to a cure.
but it would only be beneficial to put a viral license (as it were) on this information if hobbyists and volunteers had the same drug synthesizing and gene sequencing abilities as major pharma/bio companies. However, after a few more generations of Moore's Law, maybe hobbyists and volunteers could do drug synthesis and gene sequencing completely in a virtual environment? Then, a GPL license would make sense.
Caveat: I hate to sound like a G. W. Republican, but such software would also make it easy to design bioweapons. Something to think about.
We wish to send convicted pirate to Siberia for cracking Windows Vista, but can not afford police. Please to apprehend him personally.
They willan on-have collapsen.
I suspect that most of those countries have agreements with nations that do have militaries, but that's an interesting rebuttal. Especially in the case of Vatican City, which may only be protected from foreign invasion by the threat of international Catholic outrage.
In terms of active troops per 1,000 citizens, Luxembourg has a higher percentage of active military than China, India, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, or Canada. Any invading country would face a similar ratio of benefit vs. expenditure. I stand by my claim. You can't have a sovereign country without an appropriately sized army to back it up.
Nations are sovereign only because they have enough firepower to keep other nations from claiming them. What does it matter what the laws of Sealand are, if you own it and you have no army? Is the army included, or do you have to put it together yourself?
The phone book has my full name, address, and phone number. The kind of information MySpace asks for can be obtained by meeting me briefly in person and acting friendly. Is putting this information online really qualitatively different from the regular act of walking around and meeting people?
Socializing at a bar puts you at greater risk of physical harm. Socializing at a church puts you at greater risk of personal judgment. Socializing at a coffee shop puts you at greater risk of cardiac arrhythmia. Socializing at a restaurant puts you at greater risk of clogged arteries. Not socializing puts you at greater risk of dying alone.
Q: What would it take to reunite the Beatles?
A: Three more bullets.
That'll make Indiana Jones Jr. old enough for something like Indiana Jones and the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
HCUUA: Sign the confession!
Jones Jr.: Gimme the whip!
HCUUA: No time to argue. Sign the confession, we give you the whip.
Jones Jr.: (signs the confession) Gimme the whip!
HCUUA: Adios, señor. (guards grab Indiana Jones Jr.)